Cameron Heyward has a new head coach this season, but his old one is still in his phone. The Pittsburgh Steelers’ captain met reporters on Thursday ahead of Sunday night’s trip to Cincinnati, where the 6-2 Steelers and 6-2 Bengals play for first place in the AFC North on November 15, at 8:20 p.m. ET, which is 3:20 a.m. Monday in Cairo. Both teams have won four straight, and Pittsburgh won the first meeting 30-27 on September 27.
Heyward spoke on the day the second part of his two-part podcast interview with Mike Tomlin came out. Tomlin coached the Steelers for 19 seasons and stepped down after last season’s playoff loss to Houston, and he now works in television. Heyward was asked about Tomlin, the team’s decision to stand pat at the trade deadline and the Bengals’ passing game. Jamel Dean, DK Metcalf, Brock Hoffman and Germie Bernard followed him. The Steelers posted the full session.
“Cuz he’s petty”
Asked why Tomlin is still so effective at motivating his old players, Heyward did not hesitate. “Cuz he’s petty,” he said. “He’s always got an axe to grind. And that’s the way we are, too. So, you know, like minds, we push each other and expect that we perform in those high levels.”
He said the group chat started up before the season did. “As we got closer to the season, the first game, he was already texting us and, you know, wishing us luck,” Heyward said. “But, you know, it’s on fire right now with some of the stuff he says.” Asked what Tomlin is like watching a Steelers game when he is no longer the coach, Heyward said, “Opinionated,” and added: “He’s got a lot to say, but, you know, he’s still a Steeler fan at heart and, you know, he’s wishing us the best.”
Heyward was asked what it will be like to see Tomlin on Sunday, when both of them have a job to do, and whether it would be strange. He said no. “The goal is to see him after the game,” he said, “and that means we did our job.”
“Trades are for Madden”
The Steelers made no trades before the November 10 deadline, the end of a trade season that produced 18 trades around the league. Asked whether that was a disappointment or a message, Heyward said: “Trades are for Madden. I make plenty of those in my franchise mode. But in this game, it’s about 11 on the field and, you know, we feel like we have the guys to get it done.”
He then explained how he runs his video-game franchise. “All my friends hate me in the franchise, ’cause I’m the type of guy that will stay up all night and make as many trades as possible,” he said. “I’ll get like a fourth- or third-rounder and then turn that into a second-rounder and then turn it into a first-rounder, and I got like five first-round picks and they all hate me because of it. … I love my Madden in the offseason.”
Pittsburgh is playing without two receivers, Michael Pittman Jr. and Roman Wilson, who are on injured reserve. Heyward also paid tribute to Dick Hoak, the former Steelers running back and longtime assistant coach, whose death was announced this week. “I had a chance to meet him and just appreciative of what he gave to the Pittsburgh Steelers,” he said. “It was a somber moment.”
Harmon, and getting Burrow down
Defensive lineman Derrick Harmon was listed as questionable for Sunday on Friday. Heyward said Yahya Black and Keeanu Benton were among those who stepped up while Harmon was out. “It just adds to our rotation, allows us to be interchangeable,” he said of a possible return, “and it should pay dividends on Sunday.”
In September, Harmon’s late sack was the first time the Steelers got Joe Burrow to the ground, as a reporter noted. Heyward said Cincinnati took few shots downfield that day. “It was a lot of quick passes,” he said. “Going into this game, we’re not going to have as many shots, but when we get them, we got to make them count.” He called a quick throw “a win” for the defense, but only if it tackles well. “Versus other teams, they tend to hold the ball. When they play us, it’s getting it out quick,” he said. “That’s by design sometimes.” He summed up the Bengals’ offense as “feeding those two monsters,” Tee Higgins and Ja’Marr Chase.
Dean: “Make a name for yourself”
Cornerback Jamel Dean, who will see a lot of Higgins and Chase, said the bye week was “very relaxing.” “I felt like I was able to get a massage, kick my feet up,” he said, and look back on the first half of the season. He said the defense started playing faster once its players “started trusting each other.” On Chase, he said: “He got all the tools. … When he has the ball in his hands, his YAC and all this, ’cause he turns to a running back.” He also likes the stage. “It’s the one game that everybody’s going to be watching,” Dean said of Sunday night. “You make a play, it’s one of the games that, you know, you can make a name for yourself.”
Metcalf: “Every time we get the ball, score”
DK Metcalf said the defense has kept Pittsburgh in games and the offense has to be more consistent. Asked how, he said: “Every time we get the ball, score. That’ll be a great start.” He said he did not think about football at all during the bye. “I was just with my family,” he said. Asked whether the division stakes come up in meetings, he said: “Yeah, that’s y’all job. We just come out and just play football and, you know, execute and stop the other team from scoring.”
He also gave a nickname to Max Hurleman, a second-year receiver on the practice squad who was injured earlier this season and is now a candidate to help at the position. “White Chocolate going to give you some plays, especially when he out there on the field,” Metcalf said. Asked whether Hurleman knew about the nickname, he laughed. “No, I probably just made it up,” he said. “So y’all can run with it if y’all want to.”
The Steelers have not played since they beat the Browns 27-6 on November 1. Mike McCarthy’s team has won four in a row since a 27-24 loss in Cleveland in Week 4, and Aaron Rodgers threw three touchdown passes in the first meeting with Cincinnati. How that game went, play by play, is in our Steelers-Bengals interactive.
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